Unofficial news and tips about Google

July 7, 2009

Google Chrome Operating System

Google Chrome has always been a little more than a browser: it's optimized for running web applications, each tab runs as a separate process, the interface is minimalistic and there's even a task manager. "We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build," said Google in September 2008.

Google's blog announces a natural extension of the Chrome project: an operating system for netbooks. "Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. (...) Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel."

As people use more and more web applications, the operating system becomes less important and it makes no sense to pay for it. The desktop mail client could be replaced by Gmail, the calendaring application could be replaced by Google Calendar, the office suite has lightweight alternatives: Google Docs and Zoho, it makes more sense to use an online feed reader like Google Reader, your scientific calculator is less powerful than Wolfram Alpha and you'll rarely need a video player when you have YouTube, Hulu and other video sites.

This idea is not new and there are already operating systems optimized for the browser. For example, Good OS announced last year Cloud, an operating system that "integrates a web browser with a compressed Linux operating system kernel for immediate access to Internet, integration of browser and rich client applications, and full control of the computer from inside the browser". If Google manages to create a great user interface, the new operating system could be very successful.

"We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser." Yes, yes, yes and three time yes again and again and again. Great blogname and blog itself, thanks.

Everyone aware of what Goog has been doing has been waiting years for this - and I'm surprised they haven't already put out something like this. The world desperately needs to get caught back up to where we would have been if it wasn't for the browser wars, software patents, and Windows viruses. We've been held down and abused by MS for waaaaaay too many years - and it was only a matter of time before Goog brought the power of Linux and the open source community to the masses in a cohesive way.

But this system will be succesful not thanks to interface - but rather thanks to its security, stability, performance, and last but not least -interoperability (other existing soft working on that system).

@Nick Chan AbdullahWell, the browser could probably have "interfaces" written to handle such things with external programs.They could hold a central database of file extensions, check the headers of unknown files and then ask to download the program.If it is a known file type, launch the program with the file appended after the command. This might be harder to do across several OSes in the future, though.

They certainly have a lot of things to work out for launch.

Also, cue the hundreds of people who will end up getting pointed to your blog thinking it is the official blog.I have already seen such a thing before on a forum and found it pretty funny.

I hope they take a leaf out of IBM's marketing success story and start badging boxes with the Google logo, not just an OS sticker.

When people automatically start identifying new hardware as well as software with the Google name. Microsoft will have to invest their shrinking billions trying to compete in a market place where they have no real expertise.

The war will become a hardware war between Microsoft's last century platforms, vs Google's 21st century offerings.

Serioursly, who actually uses Google Chrome? I had high hopes for Google as they branched out from being strictly a search engine to a software as a service provider, but have been repeatedly disappointed. I saw Google as the one vendor perfectly positioned to take on MS, but have yet to see their financial capital,engineering ingenuity produce game changing results.

Their code seems to never leave beta, their messenger product leaves much to be desired, and their desktop search works but is nothing revolutionary.

I tried chrome for a total of 2hrs before returning to Firefox. Knowing every mouse click was cc'd to Google in addition to Chrome's inferior build quality simply was not something I was willing to tolerate when far surperior browsers were available (think Safari, Firefox, even IE7 for that matter).

I think Google's only possible recipe for success would be to completely abandon their current direction, build a hypervisor based OS instead, and provide a product that can virtualize EVERYTHING. When Google's OS can run Apple apps, Linux apps, Linux Distros, and Windows Apps / OS's all atop a Google based hypervisor, they will have taken a revolutionary step forward vs. an evolutionary step backwards. The problem of course is that with this model Google will have to find new ways to make revenue, traditionally hypervisors make money through their management tools, not the hypervisor itself.

Relying on the open source community to produce applications and features for your OS is doing nothing more than joining the existing overcrowded Linux distro segment.

Although it may sound un-competitive, the fact is, Google should either stick to being a search engine or dedicate real resources to software and application development. If it continues to disappoint its fans with substandard software, endless beta code, and disappointing applications, its fan base will continue to not take it seriously.

This is actually a very impressive thing for Google to do. Like they say in their blog this can only mean greater competition in a market that can defiantly use it.

Unlike the Anonymous people above me who feel that this will not be a viable solution. Look at where Google has come with Gmail and its Apps. I bet nobody took those seriously when they first launched either. These are VERY viable solutions Google is not trying to attack the market of people who sit at a desk everyday and have Room for a full size laptop/desktop. But more towards the Business traveler/ anyone else who only needs a simple easy to use solution that just simply works well.

Somehow Google needs to make money, and it is likely this will be through advertisement. Then the internet will be more and more like TV (as it is already becoming). Remember when one of the advantages of cable was no commercials(vs the networks)? That soon disappeared. Although I guess if this project is open source you could figure out how to 'deal' with the advertising if your programming savvy.

Big whoop, another "new" OS built on top of Linux. I'd be more impressed if they wrote their own kernel but hey, that would cost money and since they want to give it away I guess it makes it hard to justify significant R&D.

Maybe I am more Luddite than I care to admit, but I do wonder about the near future of cloud computing. The simple fact of the matter is that access to the cloud is not yet universal. How well does this stuff work when you find yourself without a wifi signal, or in an area with poor reception?

I bought my first PC in late 1984, and I've lost track of what number this one is; however, as the computer has grown in scope, I know that while I maxxed out how I used my first computer, I don't come even close now. I've worked tech support and over the years have helped thousands of people. None of them utilized anywhere close to the capabilities of their machines. There are vast numbers of people who have a need to be part of the 21st C and computer technology and internet use. They don't need a miniaturized Cray. They don't need to master programming inexplicablies, such as Linux. I think a notebook with your OS sounds just about perfect for the average user.

To the haters: yes, we know there are cloud operating systems. Yes, we know it's just Linux.

But this is Google. Did you see what happened to Yahoo! Mail when Gmail arrived? Did you see what happened to AltaVista when Google arrived? Did you see what happened to your favorite calendar after Gcal arrived?

@Blank - nothing happened to my favourite calendar. Up until recently gCal did not even have notes/todos. And nothing happened to email either - plenty of people still use their beloved Hotmail accounts.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed until I get more information about this.

Google is coming into a market that is filled with ignorant people. I have seen the video where random people were interviewed and when asked what internet browser they were using, they simply replied Google.

That's how closely related Google is, to the internet. But to open our operating system to Google as well?

What is wrong with Ubuntu if you want a Linux distro? Unless netbooks comes shipped with the OS, it would take a lot of effort for Google Chrome OS to gain acceptance.

People tech-savvy enough to know how to reformat and re-install their OS would probably install Windows XP (even though I think it's really a terrible piece of OS. I prefer my Windows 7), people not tech-savvy enough would STILL ask for Windows XP because it's Windows.

Yes when Gmail arrived, Yahoo! Mail fell out of favour. Yes when Google came, Yahoo fell out of favour. But this time, Google is fighting against Windows and Mac OS. And I'm afraid there are much more fanboys for Mac than there ever would be, for Google.

I'm afraid bad privacy policies and no alternative to opt out of user surveillance will ruin my hunger for this OS.

If this is going to be a real contender I want a payed alternative guaranteeing that my data is reserved for me and only me, effectively disabling all types of market oriented surveillance of my activities on the platform and web services.

I have always wanted to run Linux, but I've never bothered because the software just isn't there. Here is my dream scenario:

1) Google OS takes off in a big way when people see they can pay less for a netbook with Google OS instead of Windows. They are pleasantly surprised by the speed and stability of the Linux kernel, even if they can't identify it by name.

2) People who are used to Google OS on their netbooks want the same experience on their home PCs as well. OEMs start producing systems with Google OS installed, and they sell well.

3) Its increasing popularity forces major software vendors to create Google OS-compatible (and therefore Linux-compatible) versions of their software. (Namely Photoshop and mainstream video games.) Smaller software vendors follow suit, until most software that worked on Windows now works on Google OS.

4) With most of the barriers to entry removed, Google OS becomes the operating system of choice for the casual user.

5) With those same barriers to entry removed, other Linux flavors become the operating system of choice for the serious user.

It was always in pipeline, a lot of people didnt believe when I told, that once every application is in place they just have to put the OS under it. Its the opposite of what MS did and was so obvious.BUT, what I thought was they will charge something for the OS. Looks like they are not. Its an open source. whether they charge or not, I am already sold out. Because already I am running everything google on Vista. And believe me the google apps run better than MS apps on a an MS OS :)

- short Microsoft stock- long Google- write a book on Chrome OS- add "10 years of Chrome OS experience" to your resume - offer PowerPC and other processors support- register lots of Chrome OS-related URLs now and sell them later

meh..it's a netbook.keep all of your data in the cloud.maybe someday you can have ChromeOS on your desktop & play games with WINE.will be interesting to see if/how it deals with linux repositories, i'm betting this will be missing from the initial versions.AYBABTU

"I think Google's only possible recipe for success would be to completely abandon their current direction, build a hypervisor based OS instead, and provide a product that can virtualize EVERYTHING. When Google's OS can run Apple apps, Linux apps, Linux Distros, and Windows Apps / OS's all atop a Google based hypervisor, they will have taken a revolutionary step forward vs. an evolutionary step backwards. The problem of course is that with this model Google will have to find new ways to make revenue, traditionally hypervisors make money through their management tools, not the hypervisor itself."

Great idea. Build a citrix like piece of crap that can run almost any application slower and less dependably than the OS for which it was built. Yeah...

Two pointers google. I hope you are listening because I'll save you a lot of problems later.

1) Build this operating system to be extremely fast, unobtrusive, reliable, and secure.

2) Declare up front that this OS will never include built in analytics, tracking features, or other Jay Rockefeller/Orwellian privacy violating crap.

If you don't make this an honest, clean product, the open source community will abandon you and you will be left with a glorified palm OS.

I think the important underlying evolution is that users don't have to mess with operating systems and applications. I think someday, I turn a device on (which potentially have everything on FPGA) and I use my favorite application in a GUI environment.

Consider the following "The IBM 3270 is a class of terminals made by IBM since 1972 (known as "display devices") normally used to communicate with IBM mainframes."

The operative word is "display devices", call it netbook if you have to. I think we are almost at the end of loop-1. From 3270 dumb terminals to netbook dumb terminals. We had a quick stop at "smart phones"

Yeah screw privacy put my sh!t on the cloud and hey your right all the 822,15M+ personal computers that are randomly spaced across the geography of this planet would be much more secure if our data was just held on a few servers.

I am a software engineer working on the MS platform and have witnessed first hand a deterioration in the quality of software offered by MS due to lack of market competition.Vista is a great example of this. Poor quality, full of bugs and poor performance.

Goggle, do your stuff, but don't break Linux. Linux offers a open source platform which has waited many years for large scale investment, keep the solid platform open and build on top of it.

Oh and Goggle, please supply a suitable development environment, otherwise how can MS engineers like me migrate to chrome.

This is actually terrible. For a company to have access to people's files and programs is bad. It's a threat to privacy and a threat to democracy. In a nation like Iran, supposing let's say 90% of people run this OS, what's stopping the government from spying on everyone through google? Through removing their files, their programs, which they are using to promote democracy?

Sorry for the stupid question, but why are many of you worried about not having access to your files when not connected? Won't the Google Chrome OS have something like Gears, i.e. a way to store files locally? I evidently miss some big piece of this puzzle... :/

"...you'll rarely need a video player when you have YouTube, Hulu and other video sites..." What if I want to watch a movie that's stored on an external hard drive or flash drive. Remember, not everyone is interested in watching that Youtube video of little Timmy breaking his neck on a trampoline....

This is it! The final countdown for Microsoft. Lets all kiss the blue windows goodbye with the blue screen of death. I have windows and yes I hate it but I also have Ubuntu and I love Ubuntu! Stable secure and fast I may add! Looking forward to Google to put Microsoft to shame with their OS can't wait!

If you want to talk about Privacy issues I suggest you be very cautious with your debit card if you have one or Atm as Atm machines are no longer safe since an article published from Russia where a malware program was used to steal all logged ATM transactions. I will try to post a link to the story.

Known:built on linux kernel, extensively use chrome, all apps will be web apps and can be developed with any web dev language.

Suspicion:fairly generic linux under the hood, will launch a customized, simplified, "watered-down" version of X. this version of X will be optimized for and pretty much only contain the facilities to open and manage windows of a slightly modified Chrome browser. All of your GUI stuff will be web interfaces. If interfacing to a backend on the web, done. If interfacing to a local program, interfaces to cmdline backend utils.

At least, that's the way I would design it. Can't wait to get my hands on it and play around...

I can not wait to test this out. I will be interested how and what the hardware support will be. I would love to be able to run it on any desktop too, as it is a pain to have to pay the big M for an OS every few years especially when they force you to use software...errr...VISTA... that has soo many issues that it should never have left beta status. Glasses up to Google, hopefully another grand slam!

It sounds great, but once you look at what's being offered it's nothing more than just another version of Linux with Google software. They talk about all the things one doesn't need, but people do like to run their own software. They're doing exactly what people complain about; forcing people into using proprietary software.

And what about games? Linux is terrible when it comes to game offerings. Programmers are writing for Windows and until that changes nobody is going to really make a competitive operating system.

Computing now has come full circle. How many of us old timers remember when the only access to a real computing power was via a dumb terminal. The netbook is the new dumb terminal. All our data resides upstream on the server again. We neither exclusively own our data nor are we responsible for it's safety or can we be assured of privacy. This is an interesting development, but it is a two-edged sword.

If you like Chrome, but not being 'spied on' by Google, then try IRON from an outfit called SRWare.

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php

It is based on the Chrome open source code, but without the reporting and spying. I am using Version 3 now, have been using it since launch. It is FAST and minimalistic, though like the others not 100% perfect. Very rarely I use Firefox to get around some annoying block placed on Iron/Chrome, but that is less and less common as it advances.

re. Chrome OS - intriguing idea, but for those of us without a totally reliable 24*7 Internet link it will not be useful. Also I often take my Laptop to the beach to work, and the Web is not there .. yet ;}

I saw an "operating system" called Cloud( it looks like Google Chrome with a Mac-like dock at the bottom ) on Good OS's website. Everything about their operating is exactly as what Google has said! It even says that it is only for netbooks! And there are Google shortcuts on the dock. But, the best thing is that the operating system actually LOOKS LIKE GOOGLE CHROME! However, they claim to be unaffiliated with Google. So if this Good Os isn't actually affiliated with Google, we can tell Google that other folks have a production version of their idea already.

damn thing ... how many people on this earth have access to internet???a handful i would say... the rest would use desktop apps and they are always more functional than web apps.. how about games ?? do u think there is a death to gamin industry... all ds is another crap linux

Not at all surprised, they have been hinting at this for a while! I'm very excited at the fact that they are using an open source Linux base for the development of their shiny new OS! Well done Google, I look forward to the release.

i think software producers like photoshop and others focus only on windows platform only. so we need to develop a neutral format which should be efficient and fast, so that any software vendor could use this as a base and develop their product. If we include this base on GOOGLE chrome OS then we don't have software compatible to particular platform.Next for backward compatible the CHROME OS must be able to run every kind of application associated to any OS.

Google search engine is great, never a problem, and always up to date, chrome I tried for awhile, but when i heard about the security worries, i deleted and went back to IE. Take googles home page, where you one can make up their own homepage, I just love it! it has so many neat things. so if they come out with an os, i will be one of the first to jump in!keep up the great work google!!!!

I believe the long term future of computing is buying processing power over fibre optic.... back the the old 'dumb' terminal. We will buy processing power/storage from a supplier across fibre, just as you buy broad band capacity just now. So hopefully, this new Google operating system may be very early stage.

This is not very new stuff...... other like this also existed i think google should have googled bofore making such stuff .....any ways it is just took promote google that's it .....so go ahead and try to get Microsoft out of business .....and i appreciate anything that's open source .... so good luck google....

The problem will always be the same.A lot of people just read email and things like that, but most of the people is used to other programs, like music creation, video editing, games and other. So unless chrome can take on all this running things like protools, sonar, photoshop and such... is domed to die.

Other thing is that large corporations use windows on their workstations, they wont switch to another OS just like that.

In that area Microsoft will remain the king for a long time.

And other really important thing is drivers, they are starting in laptops because they know what hardware is inside the box so they can build the drivers for it.

The same problem that linux has, who will develop comercially for linux and expect to be rich??? Just a few... Will it use RPM or what??? Another packaging stuff... ???? No thanks... something like NDISWrapper??? could work... but not really.

Alright let me hand it to you gently and I find this very funny how many unintelligent people are replying to this. As a follower of the many products Google provides in the "oh so" many market areas of the Interweb, I can honestly say here that any person that bashes their new OS coming out and anything else they are doing is an undermined idiot. Now I will explain why this will be revolutionizing and changes everything we so far grasp.

For some of you look at a new product from Google coming out called GoogleWave and look at what they did with the open source Android and look at how they revolutionized Gmail with JavaScript and Ajax. Google is doing a real good job with its annual billions that they make hiring some of the brightest minds out there with location all over the world.

Look at the google maps application and Google earth as a piece of art software related. Anyone that says that the new Google Chrome OS is going to be just another OS on top of the Linux kernel has new idea of the new picture called Cloud Computing. Google is not about search and ads anymore because that is what they needed to make all these things happen. It might not seem that Google Chrome as browser is that good but think about how fast it is and how it uses a separate process for every tab. How easy it is to search and how simple yet effective the start page is.

As a developer myself, I am excited what new awesome open source software google brings us.

It's easy to get over-excited about cloud computing. Listen to the old timers, even as someone who wasn't around the first time their wisdom is obvious, we are handing ourselves over from a proprietary Microsoft trap to a proprietary Google trap, except they get our documents, etc as well as all our other data.

They have a rubbish privacy policy and track record. I don't like being tracked by them but have to use their search engine to get a meaningful experience from the internet, the others don't cut it. This means constantly changing my IP number and deleting googles cookies, it's annoying.

Linux is rubbish. Sorry. I am writing this from Linux too (although that's not what it says on my internet headers, I like to blend in with the Windows zombie-ready systems and have the wrong attacks levelled at me :)). X is an ancient piece of trash and Google could, if they do it properly, by killing X and doing the GUI from the ground-up ALA Mac-OS style with a 21st century system and not worrying about being backwards compatible level Microsoft here, for good. They already have Adobe on board, it's looking good for power apps. Many companies would consider outsourcing some of their IT infrastructure to save money. But Google, if you read this, please don't get greedy about peoples data. Big Wig CTO of DingDongKong Inc doesn't want you looking at his offshore bank account numbers, or passing along the bid price they are planning for ToBeConsolidatedInc to the US Government for under-bidding. You must, must still allow us to be able to have our own off-line data too or I am afraid you will fail in the enterprise, and with the geeks and power users less IT proficient users ask for advice about what to put on their systems, the very people who would lend their support to you if you actually fix the Linux GUI so we have something with the power of KDE, the application stability of OS X and the security of OpenBSD.

But I think the guy above is right, you will probably just make a lame version of X that loads Chrome. If you do this, your OS will be a minor curiosity in history.

I hope the operating system works better than Google Chrome Browser. And using the linux kernal? Finding apps to run various hardware and periphials is almost impossible. I hope you have the cash to get those programmers working hard on this.Good luck.

Why a netbook OS if they will be as good as desktop computers on few years? Hmmm... There is something there. They will be able to track all our movements , even when not logging in into Google and charge to use even a simple notepad

Everyone aware of what Goog has been doing has been waiting years for this - and I'm surprised they haven't already put out something like this. The world desperately needs to get caught back up to where we would have been if it wasn't for the browser wars, software patents, and Windows viruses. We've been held down and abused by MS for waaaaaay too many years - and it was only a matter of time before Goog brought the power of Linux and the open source community to the masses in a cohesive way.

It will shock and tensed situation for Microsoft When they will listen that google is going to release thier own Operating System [OS] I very happy because when google release anything that is always awesome I hope this is going to shock MS

I think it is a fantastic idea because most people that use computers are the bunch of whiners who written before me. One of the GREAT problem with LINUX at the moment is its COMPLEXITY for the average users. I hope Google work out a good and simple user interface like in their other products that will bring more users to Linux. Personally, I'd really love to have Linux be the main OS for everybody and the GUI changed from person to person. The interoperability of the Linux Kernel is fantastic. Package installation and repositories is also a goddamn good thing.

Going Linux is stupid... Don't get me wrong I love that it's a (somewhat) capable alternative OS but it's so fragmented that a simple update of an app requires updates for core components of the OS and breaks compatibility with many other apps... That and having to build and debug setup if their not in you distro repository... Without standardization of system APIs and components through the cooperation between the major distros and major usability improvements Linux will never be a mainstream OS. Look at Windows, most apps currently released will work in old and currently unsupported OS versions aswell as the new ones (and you don't need to do a backflip to get it running).

If Google wants to get a share of Windows users (or just plain hurt Microsoft) they should take a look and get involved in ReactOS (still way way alpha)! Give people a lite free alternative that is compatible with Windows binaries and drivers (native support is way better than Wine) and that has some general imporvements (like a tabbed file manager) and you mean business! Release yet another Linux distro... Good luck with that.

Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to bash Linux or Google but this is what I sincerely believe that would work.

It's great to hear that Google is going in this direction. But it also seems the obvious hasn't dawned: the BIG market in OS for smartphones & PDA's. I'd like to see Google challenge Windows Mobile (bloated & buggy).

Sounds cool, and then I just had to read through the idiotic comments. Google OS will shock Microsoft, and blah blah blah. What a joke. We are talking about two separate uses here completely. Yeah, google os sounds cool for only doing web based activities, but what about running Office, Offline games, any real software period. This is good for its use, lets not joke ourselves like it is going to threaten M$ Windows. They are totally separate things, not for the same use at all.

Google chrome has brought a lot of expectations in people who are stuck into Windows. Right now windows has got a tremendous market,almost everybody uses some or other version of windows.The pros is its software adaptability, and most importantly its user friendliness!Google has taken a lot of our e-life with orkut, google.co.in and google maps.There is no comparison to google as search engine.Hence the expectations on more latest and web equipped OS might get fulfilled..but it will take time!

Yeah and what of the Google/Serveillence snooping they have got themselves deeply intrenched into.I'm sorry to say this, but Google track and keep EVERY search, EVERY address you visit and EVERY piece of searched info you have done on behalf of the Homeland Security.Thats why Scroogle are a good alternative for searches.Somehow I dont want EVERY piece of info of mine in Googles datastorage at the whim of The US and UK Govts, to be shared with any requesting Govt agency at any time.

Okay we wanted this Operating Sytem Yesturday is it going to be cheaper than MS Vista or MS 2007 will it require more or less ram how much hard drive space will it use when can we learn more about Googles Operating System will it be user friendly and compatable with MS Office and other programs stored on the computer and of course the big question will Googles Operating System be a fair price cheaper than MS?

I think it will be great if the OS can use voice recognition software to operate it. If I can use voice recognition software to write a book why can't I use that to operate my OS. That to me is one step further than a touch screen or a slimmed down PC.

I think , Google will surely change the way people think of OS and surely bundle some brand new features to its OS , enough to catch every one's eye . I feel Google is the only answer to the year long monopoly of Microsoft ,leaving people with little choice . I look positively towards the launch of Google Chrome and waiting eagerly to have its glance .

Google supporters are QUICK to shoot obvious "hate" arrows at MS especially with today's new MS/Yahoo marriage trying to put a dent in Google's Search share while deftly silent to say ANYTHING about Google's attempt to put a dent in MS's OS market.

Like MS with their OS, Google should stay with what they do well & stop playing politics with ego enriched corporate greed (I thought only resided on the Right). Typical hypocrisy from the [qwa-sant] crowd!

@Anonymous July 29, you are wrong, at least on my case.It's not the market share what worries me, it's about ethics and bussiness practices. The big difference between a Google monopoly and a MS one is the "Don't be evil" principle, and openess.M$ has a long history of killing their competitors by using non-public Windows apis (that's how they killed Borland C++), by tying their products together and make others not able to communicate with them (MSN protocol, Windows Explorer setting search engine and all accelerators by default to M$, in the entreprise space they only join standards late when they are forced to). Money is the only driver.Google on the other hand, keeps a good balance between being profitable and also non-intrusive, respecting their users. M$ would put flahshy, 1/3 of the window ads when they are market leaders; users have to use it anyway. Google thinks on the user too, and gives always the choice for others to connect trough APIs or standards on a very reasonable way.I don't like monopolies, but I would be much happier with a Google monopoly than with a M$ one.

I am so looking forward when Google has their own PCs. Then it will all be a total Google experience. I bet they would name their first PC...Google Desk. Heehee.. I so love Google I am looking to when I can be all Google! Google me, Google you.

I am eagerly waiting for this OS...Actaully operating system need achange and its really great that Google is taking the initiative.Google is worlds favourite Search engine and has many valuable products.Its really a great news.

Lets face it linux is good and I love it and use it but but very few other people use it compared to windos or mac operating systems... MY question is how is chrome going to succeed any better than linux is right now? One of the main reasons that people dont use linux is that it cant run windows aplications and the other is that moast people already have another operating system and see no reason to install a new one. now correct me if im wrong but I havent heard anything about chrome being able to run windows apps. What chrome really needs to do is to be able to run applications from multiple oss and then focus on making it, well, beter than xp(making it better than windows 7 and vista is too much to ask for)

Anonymous said on 31 July that people don't use Linux because it can't run Windoze applications. Well, that's not really true but it's beside the point anyway. One doesn't need to run Windoze software nor do one need to have software loaded on his own machine to be productive. With the overwhelming majority of people using their computers for email, web surfing, and simple word processing, Google's vision of a small, fast browser-based OS that needs far fewer resources than a full installation of Windows, OS/X, or Linux has a lot of merit, in my opinion. Netbooks are flying off the shelves now and will sell even faster when they cost $50 to $100 less than they do today, have better performance, and battery life in terms of days rather than hours. It seems Google's vision is not evolution of an OS but rather revolution. It's called breakthrough or out-of-the-box thinking and Google's way to wage asymmetric warfare against it's competitors. Google is a leader, not a follower and they realize the futility of chasing Microsoft when they can leapfrog them.

Great idea, i was just thinking this morning "google should make an os like Chrome web browser"please include these suggestions:

make all programs have portable instalation optionmake sure suport for Microsoft.exe files is includedplease make the "Google media player" suport all formats of flv(youtube)(thinks:team up with realplayer)i realy like Moyea's youtube playerteam up with OpenOffice.org, but support MsOffice, (support for MS.exe files would do this)

Cloud computing will make us all more like the Borg. Pretty soon, none of us will feel safe, secure, or comfortable without being connected to the Collective (in this case, the Internet). We'll be so attached to it because everything we do--work, play, social interaction--will be done on the Cloud. It's happening.

Just for the mere fact that there would be an additional stable O/S to compete with Windows would be great. Let's not forget that Microsoft brought us all to a Windows based platform, otherwise we would be paying Apple through the nose for Macs.

A fundamental weakness of Windows is real-time control. For example, a major atomic-force-microscope company refuses to develop software for platforms actively supported by Microsoft because Microsoft has zero respect for user timing. If you can take advantage of the Linux platform to field an operating system that truly gives user inputs real-time priority over OS book-keeping, that could be very popular and fill a real technical need as well.

Great "google" make it better i would really love it;microsoft windows operating systems really sucks ;really slow and kind of virus attacking kernel with loads of errors and high system requirementsmake windows the most annoying os in the world( according to my point of view.)

I also wish that this os will also have a separate section for doing appliation type work.make it good

They had better make it for use with a 400mhz 64megs of ram (gateway astro).... because i want to try it so please google i will do anything please!!!!!!!!!!!!! you don't want to make a 14-year old cry do you...PS. my email is sonic1232009@aol.com or sonic1232008@juno.complease email me google or others

Meh... My point of view remains: yet another linux distro won't change a thing. People won't abbandon their Win machines based only in MS hate when the alternative OS doesn't present the exact same productivity aplications (for professional) and others. Gamers will never adopt it. Good luck trying to convince people to dump all their applications and games (and yeah I know about Wine).

Also a web OS... Come on give me a break! You can go on and talk about how great Palm Pre is or how many users it has but the fact is that having applications locally is a lot better, faster, works everywhere and without spending money! We don't have global wireless free coverage (not yet anyway) so this sort of OS is destined to ultimately fail to atract the masses as a suitable replacement for traditional OS.

As cool as web applications may be, online office suites are far from being a close or even suitable replacement for traditional office suites.

It may find a small niche in low end machines or netbook in users with unlimited data plans but all the others...

So far Chome is very far from taking the web browser throne (Firefox plugins will still make it the big winner as far as I can foresee). Chrome as a browser currently presents only one big advantage: separate processes per tab (and that's going into Firefox in the near future).

As I said before Microsoft will easily brush off this OS like it has other Linux flavours. The only thing that would have impact is a free, open source, NT based, 100% Windows application/driver compliant OS.

Most of the MS haters, Linux fanboys are too stubborn to admit that as it stands Linux is a major FAIL as an OS for the masses. It's true. Synaptic has made thing a lot easier but the fact is it's still not enough. Many other things are still very much elite only and hardware isn't fully exploited by the OS... May I ask how many of these users have a Win distro in another partition?

Google should get behind ReactOS. God knows the team could use more devs and supporters (the generic OSS Linux dev won't even look at it based generally on MS hate). It's "Windows" but not Windows. Fight fire with fire! I know I'm eagerly awaiting for a more functional release.

google should take over the world, google's operating sys gonna knock microsoft off its feet and get bill gates thinking how to create something that's meant to help people instead of sucking their money.

Yea i dunno about all that. The web is not anywhere near replacing my photoshop or other software that I use. The other major difference is that google docs...as great as it may be (I use it a lot)... is nowhere near the MS Office suite or even Open Office for that matter. The other major drawback that I face when I tried converting over to becoming a linux purist was the problem of syncing calendars and contacts. Even with windows there is no support (that I know of, that is completely free and easy) to sync with the google calendar and contacts apps. There also needs to be offline support for every single one of these products. Who wants to be dead in the water without internet access? If someone's buying a netbook, they are probably mobile and on a budget and aren't looking to pay for WiFi everytime it's available. Personally, I think the google OS will only be able to target a very small minority of users... We are nowhere close to a WebOS yet. You just can't develop web programs like you can for the desktop...not yet. This is all my opinion, if it works for you great!

In reply to the poster above, how could a gamer move to google os with such ease? People already go through hell to play games on linux through wine and cadega... I can't see how a WEB OS would be an excellent gaming machine unless you're talking about crappy web games... you can't really be serious and call that "gaming."

This is a very good news for all netbooks users. Imagine running windows vista on a 1-2GB RAM netbook...ud get 3 things: massive slowdowns, constant crashes and blue screens...now, with the lightweight google OS, all apps are synced together by a good quality provider google...If google OS could wipe out windows, it would be a great news for the hole computing world. PC is only good, i say good as in it supports it (ignoring the bugs and craches)) is for gaming. If you do design/print/editing, go with a mac, and if you simply want a small lightweight netbook for school, well there you go, google OS is there for you.

I used a PC for about 7 years and a MAC for 2. Trust me, if you want quality and performance, go with a MAC, and if you want lightweight, google OS

I'm not very technical so maybe someone could explain this to me; I would think that an open-source OS would be more vulnerable to security threats. If anyone get dig into the "nuts & bolts" of what makes the system run wouldn't it be that much easier to exploit?

Bravo....bravo...bravo... It will help many people can learn the computer. That the way science should be. But the R&D need money to running, maybe anybody can donate even $1 for this project ......Congratulation and keep going and God bless you....